Posted: Thu 18 Aug 2005, 14:25 Post_subject:
How can I increase size of /root in NTFS that won't boot?

Is there ANYWAY to just increase the root size through puppy if you even if you are on NTFS file system. It wants me to go into Windows XP to do it but I cant because WinXP's file system is corrupt so it doesnt boot..so I cant get back in.

Firstly, I'm sorry to say that you are posting in the wrong section of the forum - this area is supposed to be about explaining how something works, not asking questions. However, the ambiguos title "HOW TO" is misleading, so it's not your fault. But now you know, right?

I don't believe that there is a way of doing what you're suggesting, but hold on, someone may prove me wrong, I'd defineately wait and get a second or third opinion.

Do you have any important data on that hard drive? The reason I ask, is that if you don't, I would suggest just getting rid of NTFS all together, unless you foresee yourself needing XP ever again (and in that case, you could just create a small NTFS partition, in case you ever decided to go back).

Wait for more advice, don't take my word for it, but starting over may be the easiest solution.

Do you mean that you want to increase the size of the pup001 file? What happens when you try to boot your NTFS partition? If you've borked your BMR somehow, and still have, or can borrow, a Windows 2000 or XP installation disc, you can use it repair the MBR with the "fixmbr" command.

Resizing pup001 in NTFS is done through a console of WinXP, so you need WinXP working to do that. Just search Flash's index/sticky above, or search the forum.

(Before you do anything, read the bottom paragraph.)

My advice - copy all your important files from the NTFS partition (yes, it can be mounted read-only by Puppy, try MUT in utilities) and make it another type of partition (FAT32). Even if you reinstalled WinXP, you can use the FAT partition. The good news is, you can resize pup001 anytime when it is in FAT partition. Assumption here is that you're using Puppy version 1.04 (which has MUT).

IMPORTANT: Make sure you save all your important files somewhere (since you may be running Puppy in RAM = no saving to hard drive). Mount another device and save the files there.